A 65-year-old taekwondo teacher has been jailed for possessing 64 indecent images of children.

Ronald Thomas, from Barry, was sentenced at Cardiff Crown Court yesterday after pleading guilty to three counts of possessing indecent images, including moving images.

The court heard Thomas, of Court Road, had indecent images of children on his laptop, which was seized after South Wales Police executed a warrant at his home in March.

He initially deleted the images

Thomas, who has no previous convictions and ran a not-for-profit taekwondo group in South Wales, admitted he was the only one to use the computer in the two-year period when the images were downloaded.

Prosecutor David Pugh said the defendant had initially deleted the images but later returned to them.

The prosecutor said: “He says he was the only person who used the computers in the house.

“He said that he had been using both the Yahoo Messenger and Skype, partly because he was liaising with people interested in taekwondo.”

A total of 15 Category A images were seized, along with 22 Category B images and 27 Category C images – including moving images in each category.

'The impact has been catastrophic'

Timothy Hartland, for the defence, said: “The impact upon his life has been huge and, quite frankly, catastrophic.

“The marriage is disintegrated, he’s now living with his daughter.

“He’s been honest and frank with the police.

“He hasn’t sought to minimise or make excuses.

“There are good prospects for successful rehabilitation. He’s spoken of highly. His marriage, his reputation is in shreds.

“The defendant will accept that he is the author of his own misfortune.”

'This is not a victimless crime'

Recorder Catherine Brown said: “Until this offending you had a clean record. This is not a victimless crime. Children are abused in the production.

“These are serious offences. This was not a brief period of offending.

“The fact that there are moving images is itself an aggravating factor.

The recorder said it had become a “habit” to the defendant, and his wife of more than 40 years had since left him.

She added that there had been no suggestion that Thomas had behaved in any way other than

properly in his role as a taekwondo coach.

Thomas was jailed for a total of 12 months and ordered to pay a surcharge of £100, and a Sexual Harm Prevention Order was put in place for 10 years.